Alkaline detergents, particularly those intended for institutional and commercial use, in combination with the presence of hard water commonly result in heavy scale formation that is difficult to control. The level of hardness in water can have a deleterious effect in many systems. For example, calcium carbonate precipitation on the surface of ware can negatively impact the aesthetic appearance of the ware, giving an unclean look. In general, hard water refers to water having a level of calcium and magnesium ions in excess of about 100 ppm expressed in units of ppm calcium carbonate. Often, the molar ratio of calcium to magnesium in hard water is about 2:1 or about 3:1. Although most locations have hard water, water hardness tends to vary from one location to another.
The control of such water hardness presents additional difficulty in ware wash applications employing high alkalinity and/or use at elevated temperatures, such as those commonly employed for industrial warewashing. Traditionally, chelating agents and/or threshold agents are employed with high alkaline detergent compositions because of their ability to solubilize metal salts and/or prevent water hardness from scaling and/or precipitating.
Accordingly, it is an objective of the present invention to develop alkaline detergent compositions to address at least one of these problems and/or to offer detergent compositions with usage, environmental and/or safety benefits.
It is a further objective of the claimed invention to develop detergent compositions having both superior calcium carbonate scale control and cleaning performance.
A further object of the invention is an alkaline detergent compositions reducing and/or eliminating scale build-up of treated surfaces using a phosphonate alternative for 2-phosphonobutane-1,2,4-tricarboxylic acid (PBTC) and 1-HydroxyEthylidene-1,1-Diphosphonic Acid (HEDP) that provides superior performance.